National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Technology for Discovery

Goddard Memorial Symposium

Erik K. Antonsson, Ph.D.

Corporate Director of Technology

Northrop Grumman

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Technology Drives Exploration*

Images from open source public domain.

* Charles F. Bolden

NASA Administrator

March 11, 2015

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KeplerMission

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

Exoplanets Discovered

1st Exoplanet

Discovered

in 1989

1990 2000 2010 2015

The Search for Life is on…

Howard,

2013

Fra

ctio

n o

f sta

rs w

ith

pla

ne

ts (

P <

50

da

ys)

Planet size (relative to Earth)

Images from either Northrop Grumman Public Release or open source public domain. DSEA # AS-DSEA-15-00353 Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15

Planetary Exploration

MARS

VENUS

JUPITERSATURN

NEPTUNE URANUS

201220041997MARS Rovers

Images from either Northrop Grumman Public Release or open source public domain. DSEA # AS-DSEA-15-00353 Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15

NASA Earth Science MissionsCurrent and Planned

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Source: NASA

Trends: Terabytes of data per day. Opportunities

and need for data fusion, decision support systemsCleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15Images from either Northrop Grumman Public Release or open source public domain. DSEA # AS-DSEA-15-00353 Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15

Next Steps in Astrophysics RequireLarger Apertures ….

• Needs:

– Robotic Assembly

with Progressive

diameter growth /

proximity

operation flying /

additive docking

– Adaptive optics

Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15Images from either Northrop Grumman Public Release or open source public domain. DSEA # AS-DSEA-15-00353 Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15

Search for Life: Science Signatures

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Vegetation

Jump

O P T I C A L V I S I B L E

I N F R A R E D

N E A R I N F R A R E D

Images from either Northrop Grumman Public Release or open source public domain. DSEA # AS-DSEA-15-00353 Cleared for public release; NGAS case 15-0173 dated 2/02/15

Planetary Exploration

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Earth Science Instruments

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GSFC/NGES ACE Cloud Radar using Reflector/Reflectarray Technology for wide swath Ka-band profiling

Subscale Antenna for a/c flight demo using CRS

Ka-band AESA Line Array

Reflector/ Reflectarray

W-band Sub-Reflector

Ka-band Sub-Reflector

Thunderstorm anvil cloud imaged at W-band during IPHEX/RaDEX

Antenna Technology For A 3-D

Wide Swath Imaging Radar

Supporting the ACE Mission

• Speed

• Cost

• Information

• Partnerships

• Convergence

Issues, Challenges and Opportunitites

Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke

three stages of reaction:

o It’s completely impossible.

o It’s possible, but not worth doing.

o I said it was a good idea all along.

Arthur C. Clarke

Thanks to:

R. Polidan, G. Lee, D. Sokol, K. Griffin, C. Snodgrass

Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS)

R. Park, M. Cooley, P. Stenger

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (NGES)

and

L. Bolisay, N. Barnes

L•GARDE, Inc

Paul E. Racette, Gerald Heymsfield, Lihua Li

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)